AFP
It has not had any nationally elected representative since Monday and the gangs reign in the territory, a year and a half after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Without elections since 2016, Haiti has not had any nationally elected representative since Monday and gangs reign in the territory, a year and a half after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
The last ten senators still in office symbolically completed their term, but the Legislative Branch actually ceased to function in January 2020when all the deputies and two thirds of the members of the Upper House left their positions, without being replaced.
“We cannot dare to speak of democracy,” laments lawyer Samuel Madistin, “and this comes at a time when the State is losing control of most of the territory, 60%, to the benefit of armed gangs.” For this lawyer, Haiti “is a state that practically does not exist.”
Ehe assassination in July 2021 of President Moise by an armed commando at his private residence only amplified the already deep political crisis in which the country was plunged by the decline of public institutions.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is currently leading the country but, designated just 48 hours before the attack that cost Moise his life, its legitimacy is widely questioned.
“There was a Machiavellian calculation of the PHTK regime (Moise’s political party) that did not want to organize elections,” Madistin analyzes. “The failure also belongs to the international community and the United Nations, whose mission was to politically stabilize the country,” says the lawyer.
After 13 years of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah, 2004-2017), which came to have 9,000 blue helmets and more than 4,000 international police officers, The UN has been reducing its presence in the country, which today is reduced to a political office of some sixty people, although it maintains its mandate to “strengthen political stability and good governance.”
That no one in Haiti is capable of controlling the actions of the government or passing laws does not particularly move the inhabitants.oppressed by the threat of gangs, extreme poverty or the resurgence of cholera.
“Citizens are not really interested in this problem of representation: their priority is security”, observes Gédéon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights (CARDH).
During 2022, this organization registered at least 857 kidnappings committed by armed gangs.
The disinterest of the inhabitants in politics has gradually increased due to the scandals in which ministers, deputies or senators have been involved, without justice acting and imposing sanctions.
Just over 20% of voters participated in the last elections organized by the country, in November 2016.
“Parliament has become the capital of corruption: people vote there for money, for managerial positions,” denounces the CARDH director.
“We had corrupt people in Parliament, drug dealers, people laundering money,” Jean adds.
Indeed, the opprobrium had fallen on the last legislature even before the entry into office of the parliamentarians.
Like the case of Guy Philippe: in January 2017, four days before the start of his term as a senator offering him immunity, This man linked to powerful paramilitaries was arrested in Port-au-Prince.
Extradited the same day to Florida, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for laundering drug money.
En November 2022, several businessmen and politicians, including outgoing Senate President Joseph Lambert, were sanctioned by the United States and Canada who accuse them of being involved in drug trafficking and of maintaining ties to criminal networks.
“We must think about moralizing political life and cleaning up the electoral system (…) to prevent people from taking the next elections hostage with dirty money,” warns Jean.